I hope you are able to spend a few minutes at noon each day as we pray together as a church family. These prayers are to help you with that:
Monday:
Creator God, thank you for the Spring and the sunshine; thank you that despite dramatic limitations to our lives, we still see trees budding, flowers blooming, and life awakening. Thank you for this reminder that you love us in so many more ways than simply making our lives comfortable. May we be grateful for the blessings your creation brings to us every day. We thank you too for those workers who care for it.
This Holy Week we remember how much your love cost you. As we approach Easter weekend, help us to understand with gratitude that the limitations we have accepted during COVID19 are unimportant, compared to the limitations you accepted in coming as Emmanuel, to die for our salvation. Amen
Tuesday:
Incarnate Christ, when you lived on earth as a man, many did not accept you as Lord and Saviour, and many still do not today. Even we who profess to follow you are often preoccupied with the many distractions in our daily lives, and fail to follow you wholeheartedly. The isolation brought by COVID19 is painful, but we pray that you will help us to use this time away from so many distractions well. May we learn again how trustworthy you are, and may we come to depend wholly on you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Where we are anxious, please bring us peace in knowing we are yours.
We pray especially now for those who are fearful without you, anxious for their own health or livelihood, or that of loved ones. Please help us to see where we can bring practical help to others in your name, but most of all help us to offer the peace of knowing you. Amen
Wednesday:
Sovereign Lord, thank you that your salvation plan stretches back before the creation of the world, and forward to your future glorious kingdom. This Holy Week, as we remember that even the death of your beloved Son was the focal point of your plan, may we now look to you and trust that you ‘work in all things for the good of those who love you’.
We pray today for families: for strength for parents as they care for and support their children, when they might not feel strong themselves, and especially for loving networks for single parents who may feel especially isolated. As they love their children and focus on being a family together, be with them. Amen
Thursday:
Jesus, Lord and Master, who served your disciples in washing their feet, serve us daily in washing our motives and actions. Give us understanding of what you have done, and teach us to follow the example of your humility, that by love we may serve one another for love of you, our Saviour and our Lord. Amen.
Friday:
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)
Loving Father, Jesus became sin for us, that in him, we might become the righteousness of God—the Just for the unjust, the Beautiful One for the broken ones, the Lamb of God for the rebels from God.
Lord Jesus, a million years into our life in the new heaven and new earth, we will still be stunned with awe, worship, and gratitude for the greatness of your sacrifice and love for us. Because you were fully forsaken, we are forever forgiven. Because you exhausted God’s judgment against our numberless sins, we now live by the gift of your perfect righteousness. We bow our heads in humility and raise our hands in praise. Amen. Source
Saturday:
Lord God, On the Sabbath, Jesus rested. He was in the grave. He had finished his work.
To most people’s eyes, It looked as if it were all over. He was dead and buried.
But only as a seed dies when it is planted in the earth, Not to decay, but to spring to new life. Teach us to take refuge in you when we are afraid Teach us that death is not our end
Teach us to hope always in you And in the resurrection, the making of all things New. Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen. Source
Loving Father, just as the disciples must have felt lost and numb on Easter Saturday, we pray for those who today especially need the hope that your resurrection brings. For those who are simply in difficulty, for those whose lives have been damaged by the pandemic, and for those who cannot see good in the future, we pray that you will bring your hope and joy into their lives in Christ this Easter. Amen